5 Biggest Diva Digs During 'Idol' Premiere

By JACKIE WILLIS

January 17, 2013

The season 12 premiere of American Idol Wednesday night was just short of hair pulling, as we saw new judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj exchanging underhanded remarks as Keith Urban and Randy Jackson just looked on. Though there were a few impressive auditions during the New York leg of the show, the standout moments came from the female judges and their inability to get along. Here are the five biggest diva moments from Idol's first episode:

1. "We can have accessories? I didn't know that was allowed. But that's the last thing I'm going to say," Carey said after seeing Minaj's drum major hat on the judges' table. "Play nice," Minaj quipped back. "Why'd you have to reference the hat?" This then led Carey to recall a moment before the show, "In the elevator you said, 'Stop looking me up and down, Mariah.' I wasn't. I was admiring the hat."

2. "She's a b****, she's a b****, she's a b****," Minaj said through her teeth after the first contestant said her favorite song was Carey's rendition of All I Want For Christmas. "If she called me something that begins with a 'B' and ends in an '-itch', I rebuke it," Carey responded.

3. Appropriately, the women got in a spat over the movie Mean Girls. Here's how it played out:

Carey: I want to lose three pounds.

Minaj: I know how you can.

Carey: It's a quote from Mean Girls. If you knew Mean Girls you would know.

Minaj: I do know Mean Girls.

Carey: OK, who says 'I want to lose three pounds.' Which character?

Minaj: Not Lindsay. The other one, with the blonde hair.

Carey: What's her name?

Minaj: You know something, Mariah?

Carey: I just want to know. Broken promises, right?

4. At one point, Minaj made a choking gesture as she walked towards Carey, leading the judge to ask, "What is going on with you, Miss Minaj?"

5. As cameras followed Minaj out of the audition room towards the end of the episode, the rapper said, "I had to strangle one of the divas on the panel but I won't tell you who."

Host Ryan Seacrest perhaps said it best when addressing the Minaj-Carey feud, saying in the episode, :"When you add three incredibly passionate performers to the panel, you know there’s going to be some potential personality conflict."

UPDATE: The feud between the female judges didn't seem to attract a larger audience. In fact, it did the opposite. The ratings declined for the FOX show as the series premiere opened with a 6.0 rating among adults 18-49, down 19% from the 11th season premiere last January, and 17.8 million total viewers, down also 19%. This would be Idol‘s lowest-rated in-season premiere to date. That being said, the singing reality competition’s debut still ranks as one of the highest-rated entertainment telecasts this season and is No.1 against other unscripted series.